5 Stanley Cup playoff teams from 2019 that won’t clinch in 2020
By Kyle McKenna
4. San Jose Sharks
It’s murky waters in California for San Jose and its beloved Sharks.
A perennial contender, the Sharks have only missed the Stanley Cup playoffs twice over the past two decades. That stat in itself is impressive, however, the Teal and its passionate fan base are more than ready to celebrate a Stanley Cup championship.
Still, at this rate, that’s not happening this season considering the Sharks are on the verge of being a surprising team to not advance to the big dance this spring. San Jose’s star-studded skaters such as Evander Kane, Joe Thornton and Logan Couture haven’t risen to the occasion to perform, nor has the face of the franchise, Patrick Marleau.
The team’s overall two-way play and defense have been exposed and only the struggling Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings have fewer points in the Western Conference standings.
San Jose has allowed a whopping 64 goals through 18 games played, while only finding the back of the net 36 times. To put things in perspective, there’s a generation of Sharks fans out there that have never witnessed the Teal perform this bad.
While most NHL fans alike want to point the finger at head coach Peter DeBoer, and see him relieved of his duties after four seasons, there’s more to the Sharks’ problems than coaching – and ones that arguably can’t be fixed this season.
The departure of former captain Joe Pavelski didn’t help the Sharks’ matters entering 2019-20, but San Jose’s aging veterans have been a problem and the team just isn’t as fast, either. The Western Conference is competitive but overnight San Jose became a basement team in the standings.